A gamer who chugged twelve energy drinks in 10 minutes has suffered awful consequences.

The 36-year-old man, who goes by ‘JS’, almost died and his pancreas began ‘digesting itself’ after he decided to down the caffeinated drinks in an effort to impress his colleagues.

A doctor who shares stories of previous patients on YouTube, Dr Bernard Hsu or ‘ChubbyEmu’, brought the case to attention

The video explained that when JS he was growing up in the 80s, he was always around video games – his parents liked playing them but he didn’t really have any friends.

So, trying to connect with people in his workplace, he thought it would ‘be funny’ to chug an excessive 12  freebie energy drinks within 10 minutes.

However, the stunt quickly took a turn for the worst –  after he had finished drinking, the man immediately felt ill.

The doctor recalls ‘The bottom of his chest was burning, he wasn’t sure if it was his stomach or his heart hurting.

He was short of breath and decided to take his mind off the pain by playing video games.

Though, ‘as the hours passed, he could feel his heart fluttering’ – but he was confused by why it was happening as caffiene ‘usually doesn’t have much of an effect on him’.

JS regularly exceed the recommended 400 milligrams a day of caffeine, pushing it to as high as nine hundred milligrams sometimes.

As his condition worsened, he threw up in his kitchen sink which only made him feel worse – he could supposedly ‘feel his heart beating in his eyes’.

He didn’t suspect it was the energy drinks and waited a day before calling an ambulance as he couldn’t eat or drink.

Upon arrival at the emergency room, the gamer threw up on a nurses shoes and was ‘too embarrassed’ to admit how many drinks he consumed.

He was eventually diagnosed with hyperglycemia, which is when the level of sugar in your blood gets too high. 

However, doctors were worried that something else could be wrong and after more tests, he was diagnosed with hyperlipasemia, also known as acute Pancreatitis.

This is a serious condition where the pancreas becomes inflamed over a short period of time. 

The man’s pancreas had started ‘digesting itself’ due too much fat in his blood, caused by the energy drinks – his liver and kidneys began to shut down and he developed a blood infection.

Thankfully after medical treatment and antibiotics, JS survived the ordeal. 

Though, it serves as a stark warning that could lead others to rethink their energy drink consumption.

Dr Hsu warned viewers ‘Most people know energy drinks can be dangerous when consumed in huge excess.

‘If you have one once in a while, and you’re young and healthy, it’s probably not a big deal. 

‘But if you start chugging multiple cans back to back, then bad things are probably going to happen.’

The man in the YouTube video is an actor dramatising the incident. 

Dr Gareth Nye, Programme Lead for Medical Science at Chester University, said the man is lucky that his heart didn’t stop immediately.

He said: ‘Energy drinks consumption has been increasing over the years, particularly in younger people. 

‘Well known side effects of energy drinks include tachycardia, anxiety, stomach irritation, and dehydration – mainly centred around the high caffeine content.

‘Caffeine is well known to alter the nervous system and cause dramatic changes to our hearts, with higher levels leading to a bigger impact. 

‘The man in question is extremely lucky his heart didn’t stop immediately after the ingestion of 10 cans of energy drink.

‘Energy drinks can however, on rare occasions lead to other organ damage with the pancreas being impacted in 35 people per 100,000 users in the United States.’

He added that, although remaining rare, it has the potential to be severe:

‘Acute pancreatitis is life threatening with death reporting in 50% of cases of severe illness.

‘In 80% of cases, acute pancreatitis is caused by alcohol consumption or gall stones but never the less the symptoms are severe abdominal pain and vomiting.’

A 2021 study found that a 21-year-old man from the UK who was suffering from unexplained kidney failure, had a history of energy drink consumption and two could be linked.

The study published in BMJ Case Reports states that ‘There was no significant past medical history and family history was not suspicious for cardiomyopathy or sudden cardiac death.’

Adding ‘however there was a history of regular ‘Energy drink’ drink consumption, specifically consuming an average of four 500 mL cans per day for approximately 2 years. 

‘Each can contains 160 mg of caffeine in addition to taurine and various other ingredients. 

‘Given the history of chronic energy drink consumption, lack of significant past medical or family history, cardiac imaging findings and improvement with ceasing intake, energy drink-induced cardiotoxicity was felt to be the most likely cause.’ 

Last year, a construction industry boss called for a building site ban on energy drinks as he believes they are damaging the health of young builders and making work slower.

In 2019 an English 21-year-old, Vinny Pyner, got hooked on energy drinks to help him stay awake for his college studies and ended up snapping his weakened teeth. 

Soon he was drinking up to 45 cans a week and his four front teeth eventually snapped off when he bit into an apple.

A new biofuel factory in Australia was at the forefront of BP’s efforts to go green under former boss Bernard Looney.

Indeed, BP Australia’s boss Frederic Baudry describes the country as the ‘poster child’ of the FTSE 100 giant’s highly ambitious global energy transition strategy.

So what becomes of the plant in Kwinana south of Perth following Looney’s departure last week – for failing to disclose personal relationships with staff – will say much about BP’s future under new leadership.

For 65 years, the site provided a steady source of employment, and fuel, to generations living in this small industrial offshoot in Western Australia. 

But with planes grounded and cars sitting idle in driveways during the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for fuel collapsed, further squeezing profit margins.

BP shut the plant, laying off 600 workers, and converted the site into an import terminal to ship in cheaper fuel from overseas.

Two years on, the site is on the cusp of being repurposed again to spearhead the oil major’s pivot from hydrocarbons to renewable energy. 

It has been earmarked for a new generation of fuel refinery, one which makes sustainable aviation fuel with raw materials such as used cooking oil or household waste, and renewable diesel using vegetable oils, animal fats and other biowaste products.

With construction expected to get under way next year, BP hopes it will be its first global biofuel project off the blocks, powering planes, trucks and cars.

If all goes to plan – and it’s a big if – BP reckons it will be producing hydrogen from 2026 and at a sufficient scale to begin exporting it by the end of the decade. 

With its natural bounty of sun, wind and space, Australia is seen as an ideal place to generate wind and solar power, despite its remoteness.

During Looney’s tenure, Australia moved up the pecking order, behind the US and the UK, with projects worth tens of billions of dollars in the pipeline.

Some of the projects being planned are mind-boggling in scale, and would be out of the question in smaller, more densely populated European countries. 

One of the biggest is being spearheaded by BP in the Pilbara region of North Western Australian, best known as the country’s iron ore heartlands.

In June last year BP bought a 40.5 per cent stake in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub, which envisions covering around 2500 square miles of outback, an area roughly the size of Devon, with more than 1,700 wind turbines up to 950 feet high, and 18 giant solar farms. 

And all dedicated to generating electricity to produce ‘green hydrogen’, before adding nitrogen to convert it into ammonia to make it easier to export.

The renewables push has been encouraged by Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese’s Labour government, which swept to power last year on the back of bold pledges to tackle climate change.

The firm has already received $70million in federal government funding for the hub in Kwinana.

But at an event in London earlier this year, Baudry warned the Albanese government that more government support is required to give BP the confidence to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into turning its ‘shovel ready projects’ into a reality.

But with the departure of Looney, the driving force behind the company’s green ambitions, some shareholders dismayed by BP’s focus on renewable energy, which they believe has come at their expense, have been offered a glimmer of hope.

BP has been the worst performer of all the global oil majors, with its shares rising 10 per cent since Looney became chief executive in February 2020 compared with a rise of more than 25 per cent at Shell.

David Hewitt an analyst at Liberum said the company now has the opportunity to ‘reverse the overzealous pivot to lower returning renewables’ and refocus on what BP does best.

BP has already watered down its energy transition plan to an extent, announcing earlier this year that it would aim to cut oil production by a quarter by 2030 instead of by 40 per cent.

Russ Mould from AJ Bell believes a further retreat is off the cards for now, particularly with Murray Auchincloss – Looney’s former finance chief – as interim chief executive. 

But Mould speculated that BP may temper its green ambitions if oil prices remain elevated for a long time, or if high inflation deters households and businesses from switching to more expensive, and potentially less reliable, forms of renewable energy.

Tens of millions of people — more than live in the entire state of Florida — are now exposed to toxic water runoff from metal mining, a new study has found.

The report lays bare the devastating impacts that can follow a reckless transition to ‘green’ energy, compounding the ecological damage wrought by over 150 years of drilling and mining for fossil fuels.

The researchers found that 23 million people worldwide, as well as 5.72 million in livestock, over 16 million acres of irrigated farmland and over 297,800 miles worth of rivers have been contaminated by mining’s toxic byproducts seeping into the water.

This metal mining includes many so-called ‘rare earth elements’ essential to the manufacture of high-tech electronics, solar cells, wind turbines and all the batteries needed to store sustainable ‘green’ energy (and power electric cars and iPhones).

While the new study focuses on environmental impacts, global metals mining has recently faced shocking lawsuits against major tech firms, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Tesla, over child slavery in the Congo, where 70 percent of the industry’s cobalt is sourced.

‘Rapid growth in global metal mining is crucial if the world is to make the transition to green energy,’ noted Chris Thomas, a zoologist at the University of Lincoln whose specialty is in spatial ecology and threats to the global water supply.

Thomas led the analysis and modelling work for the new study, which was published  today in Science.

Thomas and his colleagues have developed a new database, supported by on-the-ground testing, which now maps the hundreds of square miles’ worth of rivers and floodplains contaminated by these industrial processes across the globe. 

The devastation wrought by this contamination, they found, was widespread, affecting approximately 297,800 miles (479,200 km) of river systems total and over 63,000 square-miles (164,000 sq-km) of floodplains worldwide. 

But, North America stood out as the most affected, at 123,280 miles of tainted river systems, and approximately 10.7 million acres of polluted floodplains. 

But the damage was not much better in South America with 50,766 miles of rivers and over 9.5 million acres of floodplain impacted; nor in Asia with about 37,842 river-miles and about 8.3 million acres of floodplain polluted by metal mining waste.

In terms of potency of local damage, however, the the scientists saved their harshest criticisms for ‘the environmental legacy of historical mining,’ which they said was ‘most problematic in western Europe,’ where long-abandoned old mines have left lasting environmental damage.

‘Much of the estimated global contamination we have mapped is a legacy from the industrial era,’ Thomas said in a press statement. ‘Rightly, modern mining is being encouraged to prioritize environmental sustainability.’ 

The researchers developed a model to predict the spread of contaminants from all known active and inactive metal mines — plus facilities used to seal off hazardous mining waste — with a focus on pollution from lead, zinc, copper, and arsenic.

These potentially harmful contaminants and industrial byproducts can seep into the local water supply, whether transported downstream where the metals are deposited along river beds and floodplains, or otherwise sinks deep into underground aquifers.

Mark Macklin, director of the university’s Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health, who led the international team behind the new research, said he anticipates the new study’s maps and modelling tools will help prevent future reckless mining.

‘We expect that this will make it easier to mitigate the environmental effects of historical and present mining,’ Macklin said.

‘Our new method for predicting the dispersal of mine waste in river systems provides governments, environmental regulators, the mining industry and local communities with a tool that, for the first time, will enable them to assess the offsite and downstream impacts of mining on ecosystem and human health.’

All told, the researchers identified 159,735 abandoned mines and 22,609 active mines — as well as 11,587 mining waste storage facilities and 257 known cases of failed and leaking storage sites. 

The team described the new database in their report as ‘the most comprehensive compilation of metal mine locations to date.’ 

Concerns over just how bad the ecological impact of metal mining for sustainable technology might be is complicated by the diverse variety of resources involved, which can lead to ‘apples to oranges’ comparisons.  

According to the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, green energy technologies like wind turbines and electric cars often do require many more mined minerals than the present fossil fuels infrastructure. 

One electric car, for example, requires six times more metallic and mineral materials than a combustion engine car, MIT’s university team reports. 

And a wind power plant requires nine times more of these mined compounds than a traditional gas-fired plant.

But these heavy investments in initial overhead are dwarfed by the repeated volume of fossil fuels currently mined today to meet present and growing energy demands. 

As of 2021, over 7.5 billion tons of coal were extracted from the ground, wreaking havoc on local people and environments from Sydney Australia’s Royal National Park, to coal-rich Inner Mongolia in China and more.

This is a whopping 25 times the current estimates of the metal mining needed for a clean energy revolution by 2040, according to projections from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (founded during the 1970s oil crisis by the OECD).

The transition, according to the IEA, will require new mining under 30 million tons.

Scott Odell, a visiting scientist at MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative who specializes in clean energy and mining, cautions however that these environmental impacts often need to be assessed on a more detailed, case by case basis.

The mining of any two different metals requires different techniques with different impacts — as can two separate deposits of the same metal if located in significantly different conditions.  

‘I think if someone were to tell you one or the other is better in terms of direct impacts pound for pound,’ Odell said, ‘you should ask a lot of questions about how they got to that answer.’

Wood Group win £262m contract with Harbour Energy which will provide hundreds of jobs in Aberdeen

• The London-listed company said that contract is for an initial five years
• Wood revealed the deal will provide hundreds of jobs in the in Aberdeen area

By Daniel Fessahaye

Updated: 10:52 EDT, 4 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

Octopus is set to become the UK’s second biggest energy supplier after it announced plans to buy Shell’s household gas and electricity business.

The company, which started as a challenger to traditional suppliers, has climbed the rankings of the energy firms and now only Centrica-owned British Gas lies ahead of it.

Founded in 2015 by businessman Greg Jackson, Octopus will supply energy to almost 6.5m customers following the deal.

The acquisition, which also includes Shell Energy’s German business, comes less than a year after Octopus took on 1.5m customers from Bulb after its collapse into administration.

The deal needs regulatory approval and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of the year.

The Competition and Markets Authority declined to comment on whether it will investigate.

Chief executive Jackson said: ‘Octopus has proven that it delivers game-changing service while innovating and investing relentlessly towards a cheaper cleaner energy system.’

Consolidation in the energy sector has ramped up over the last few years with Octopus emerging as one of the major players.

Many smaller suppliers collapsed in the autumn and winter of 2021 under the pressure of soaring wholesale gas prices, with millions of customers snapped up by surviving businesses. The biggest casualty of the crisis was Bulb, which had been Britain’s seventh biggest energy supplier.

E.On bought N Power in 2019 and Ovo Energy, founded by Northern Irish businessman Stephen Fitzpatrick in 2009, purchased SSE in January 2020.

Ovo Energy’s and Octopus’s trajectories are similar.

Both were founded by British entrepreneurs as challengers to the established suppliers and have gone on to become two of the major players in the UK’s energy market.

Shell Energy entered the UK domestic energy market when it bought First Utility in 2018. The oil giant announced in June that it had put its British and German domestic energy business up for sale, exiting the household energy supply sector after just five years.

It followed a strategic review of the division under chief executive Wael Sawan, who was appointed in January this year.

In May, it was reported that Ovo and Centrica were among those also interested in bidding for the company.

Shell Energy customers in the UK will be transferred to Octopus following the deal’s completion and will not face any disruption to energy supply.

Shell is also winding down its home energy retail business in the Netherlands but said it does not plan to exit the home energy markets in Australia or the USA. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said that the ‘deal suits the strategic objectives of both firms’.

‘Shell exits a market that has seen low returns for energy providers, thanks to soaring wholesale energy costs and increased regulatory and political pressure in the form of caps on the prices that suppliers can charge their customers,’ Mould said.

He added: ‘Providing the transaction gets regulatory approval, this is another step for Octopus to cementing its position as a leading supplier in the UK energy supply market, following the failure or withdrawal of many rivals and its purchase of Bulb in 2022.’

The deal also includes 500,000 UK broadband customers.

Octopus does not currently have a broadband division and said it could not comment on plans for those customers until after the deal receives regulatory approval.

James Mabey, an analyst at analysis provider Cornwall Insight, said: ‘This marks the second major customer book acquisition by Octopus Energy in the last year, after the transfer of Bulb’s customers.

‘The transfer of Shell’s customers will represent an increase in customer numbers on a similar scale. The acquisition will see concentration in the domestic supply market taken to its highest level since early 2016.’

What to do if you’re a Shell Energy customer

The deal is expected to complete in the final three months of 2023 following regulatory approval so Shell customers have been advised to sit tight.

In time they will be transferred to their new account with Octopus, together with their existing direct debits and all customer credit balances are protected.

Natalie Mathie, energy expert at Uswitch, said: ‘Until any takeover is done and dusted, the business will operate as normal. 

‘Customers can be reassured that whatever happens, their credit balances will be protected and no action is required from them.

‘Shell Energy’s decision to exit the market is disappointing, as it has been a well-backed challenger to the larger energy suppliers.

‘It is important that there is strong competition between firms in the longer term, so suppliers cannot rest on their laurels when it comes to service quality and price.’ 

What about broadband customers?

Peter Ames, broadband expert at Broadband Genie, said: ‘While many eyes will be on how the Shell Energy takeover by Octopus will affect its energy customers, around half a million people also get their broadband through the company.

‘A question mark remains over the future of Shell Energy Broadband and whether Octopus will use this acquisition to venture into telecoms. 

‘For the time being at least, we are being told that customers won’t see a drop in service or an increase to their bills.’

LIVE

BUSINESS LIVE: Hays’s new boss; Harbour Energy; James Cropper; FTSE edges up

By This Is Money

Updated: 06:34 EDT, 24 August 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

British Gas owner Centrica predicts ‘significantly higher’ profits from household energy business

• Centrica told investors the opening five months of 2023 were ‘strong overall’ 
• Its anticipates full-year adjusted EPS will be towards the top end of forecasts
• CEO Chris O’Shea’s proposed £4.5m pay packet has been heavily criticised

By Harry Wise For This Is Money

Updated: 09:00 EDT, 13 June 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

POPULAR MONEY SECTIONS
Take me to…

Government to shelve windfall tax for oil and gas companies if energy prices fall significantly

• Oil and gas firms currently pay a 35% ‘energy profits levy’ on North Sea profits
• The UK government estimates the levy has raised £2.8bn since being introduced
• Harbour Energy recently declared it would cut 350 jobs due to the windfall tax 

By Harry Wise For This Is Money

Updated: 12:26 EDT, 9 June 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

POPULAR MONEY SECTIONS
Take me to…

FDA issues fresh warning about ‘poppers’ – the sex enhancement drug sold in gas stations that Americans are mistaking for energy drinks and DYING

By Luke Andrews Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 12:48 EDT, 26 May 2023

Analysts predict average household energy bills could fall to below £2,000 a year this summer after a slump in gas prices

By Luke Barr, Financial Mail On Sunday

Published: 16:52 EDT, 6 May 2023 | Updated: 16:52 EDT, 6 May 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

POPULAR MONEY SECTIONS
Take me to…